The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Ex-Best Buy manager Michael Oliveri, may “suck,” but he’s pretty darn clever. After he was fired from Best Buy he applied with Circuit City and Target, but became suspicious when job offers from those companies were abruptly terminated.

Suspecting that Best Buy might be interfering, Oliveri created an email account in the name of a Target employee and contacted Best Buy for a reference. In his lawsuit, Oliveri alleges that Ann McCafferty, a human resources manager at Best Buy, responded:

“I will give you the skinny on him but you can’t say you got any info from best Buy or we can be sued. Just don’t hire him and say you went with a better candidate.

“He was hired as GM and demoted after 12 months or so because he sucked. He is desperate for a job because supposedly his wife left him because he has no job. I would not touch him.

“Again, do not forward this email to anybody or say where you heard the info from because we were not allowed to give this info out, but I would hate you to get stuck with this guy!”

The Philadelphia Inquirer says it’s against New Jersey law to interfere “with a prospective employment relationship.” Best Buy says it is investigating.
Ex-manager sues Best Buy over email [Philadelphia Inquirer] (Thanks, Joshua!)
(Photo:amanjo)